Making a short film in i-movie and yesterday the viewer went black - is there a way to restore the picture and any idea if I might have inadvertently clicked something to turn it black? It's version 10.1.12 and on macbook pro 13" running Mojave 10.14.5.
Hi, edgar,
Possibly the black screen is caused by a corrupt preference or is confined to just this one project. Try deleting preferences by opening iMovie while holding down the Option and Command keys and selecting to delete preferences in the box that appears. iMovie will open in a new library. Reopen your old library to get back to your project. Now see if the black screen issue is cured.
If no luck, try placing your media in a newly created project and see if that resolves the problem.
Does the black preview screen relate to a specific video clip? If so, you can try sharing out the clip from QuickTime Player at a lower resolution, then reimporting it into your iMovie project. See if that cures it. Also, the clip might be in a format that iMovie is having trouble with, such as a .mov file with unsupported codecs, or perhaps the new HEVC format. Changing the format to Mp4/AAC might cure it. You can use the free download, Handbrake, to do that. You can get Handbrake here:
-- Rich
Hi, edgar,
Possibly the black screen is caused by a corrupt preference or is confined to just this one project. Try deleting preferences by opening iMovie while holding down the Option and Command keys and selecting to delete preferences in the box that appears. iMovie will open in a new library. Reopen your old library to get back to your project. Now see if the black screen issue is cured.
If no luck, try placing your media in a newly created project and see if that resolves the problem.
Does the black preview screen relate to a specific video clip? If so, you can try sharing out the clip from QuickTime Player at a lower resolution, then reimporting it into your iMovie project. See if that cures it. Also, the clip might be in a format that iMovie is having trouble with, such as a .mov file with unsupported codecs, or perhaps the new HEVC format. Changing the format to Mp4/AAC might cure it. You can use the free download, Handbrake, to do that. You can get Handbrake here:
-- Rich
Hi Rich - Found it! Went through top tabs and found one to open libraries - I was in such a tizz that I can't tell you how I got there but the recent library popped up and nothing is lost. Phew!
Again many thanks for your help - very much appreciated! Regards
:) I can only imagine your dismay when you couldn't find your work.
Your iMovie libraries are stored by default in the Movies folder. You can get there from the Finder menu by clicking on Go/Home/Movies. Or, you can click on the Finder icon in the dock (the smiley face) and the Movies folder will be displayed in the side bar that appears.
-- Rich
Hi Rich - Thank you for replying in great detail, very kind of you. Unfortunately I am now terrified I've lost all the work.
As it affected all the library not just the current project I closed i movie and reopened holding down Option and Command and selected delete preferences. i movie opened in a new window but did not offer the old library. I selected to find another library but none came up. It took me to applications but all were dimmed and could not be selected.
Under libraries I now have an Updated Project Media which is empty and a New Event which is an old event from 2017, but no sign of the old library with the current video and several others. Aargh...
Rich - Could I ask you another question?
Working with a long interview in the timeline I split the clip into chunks I would like to use but I can't work out how to grab those clips from the timeline and store them in the media window - in case I want to use them or refer to them in the future.
Is there also a way of titling a clip so I know which bit of the interview it is - eg 'youth groups' a current clip topic?
You can't drag a split-off segment of a clip into the media browser from a project. When you split or trim a clip, it only applies to the specific project timeline that you are working on. When you click on the Project Media item at the top of the project sidebar, you will see a display of all clips in the project, but they will be the full unedited clips. There is no way to add a split-off segment to the Project Media view or to the media browser in general.
What you can do is select the segment and do an Edit/Copy. Then open a newly created project and Edit/Paste the segment into it. Then share out the newly created project as a File to your desktop. Name it Interview Segment 1 (or whatever identifying title that you want).
Next in iMovie create a new event (select your library in the sidebar, do a File/New Event). Name the new event Segment 1, or whatever you want. Open the event. The media browser will display no media because there is no media in the event. Now import (drag) the shared movie into the empty media browser for the event. The edits and split that you made to the clip will be preserved as an independent clip in the event, that you can access from other projects. You can repeat this process for each segment and store each in a separate event or store them all in the same event. You can reference the title of each segment by selecting it in the media browser. The clip information will appear above the Preview screen.
Another way is to create a new project titled, for example, "Interview Segments", and paste all of your shared out segments (as described above) into it. The project will act as a library for your segments. You can copy and paste them into other projects.
As a note, instead of adding additional questions on a new subject to your initial post, it is more helpful to others if you would ask the question in a separate post. That way they can search and find it.
-- Rich
ps It worked by the way - viewer picture restored! Many thanks!
You are welcome. Glad it worked.
-- Rich
Hi Rich - Thank you again, those hints are very useful and a great improvement to my heart health!
You are welcome again. :)
-- Rich
I-Movie viewer has gone black
